Rothbard merchandise
Cafe Press is a great website for making promotional merchandise. They don't require you to order bulks of product. You just send your artwork and logos and they host your stuff. You can put markups on it and earn profits for your organization.
At the recent ASC is sported my new Rothbard hoodie and a number of folks asked where I got it so here's a couple of interesting sets of merch on Cafe Press:
1: Read Rothbard
2: Liberty Maniacs
3: Hayek
unfortunately I can't find the one I ordered. Maybe the seller has taken it down??
Comments (10)
I find it amazing that a website (objectorx.com) can sell shirts that say "Read Rothbard" right next to "Flat Tax Now" and "Reagan Lives On" shirts.
Similarly, "Liberty Maniacs" sells a mug that reads "Carpet Bomb Paris".
The world truly has gone insane.
As far as I can tell the shirts are way too expensive, and you could get similar quality shirts printed up yourself for less money. And it won't advertise a stupid website on the back. I buy most of my t-shirts from ebay. Average price $14 shipped, some vintage some newly made. I have a Washington Bullets shirt (vintage - perfect condition), a "When they come for your guns, give 'em the bullets first" shirt (new - good quality), and some random others.
I wanted to print up some shirts sometime, maybe a "Hatred is my muse" shirt. Better to cut out the middle man, and not advertise for dumb sites.
Published: March 31, 2005 6:24 PM
As far as I can tell the shirts are way too expensive, and you could get similar quality shirts printed up yourself for less money.
The last time I looked into getting one-off screenprints on a T-shirt, it was somewhere in the $40 range. In light of that, I believe that Cafe' Press performs a valuable service.
If you have a source for one-off Ts less than Cafe Press, please do post their contact information. Competition, and all that.
Published: April 1, 2005 2:24 PM
I wasn't refencing one offs. But the average cost of doing like 10 shirts is probably lower and the quality would likely be better. To me it would be worth the trouble of selling the other 9 to avoid having someone else's dumb war mongering website on my back. Subjective value, and all that.
Published: April 1, 2005 5:28 PM
For what it is worth:
I did my own experimentation with CafePress awhile back, here are the results...
Published: April 1, 2005 8:01 PM
Mr. Canning;
I appreciate your comments about my store, libertymaniacs.com. A few things though.
1. I don’t put the Libertymaniacs.com logo on my products. Other site may do so, I don’t.
2. If you have found a service that can produce higher quality poe-off rinting than cafepress for less, along with the quality and professionalism of their service and staff, please let us know.
Cafepress is, as far as I know, the most revolutionary and professional service on the web doing what they do.3. The reason I have purposefully included inane products like “CARPET BOMB PARIS� coffee mugs, and “PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH� T-shirts in my store is much the same reason that wine stores often carry Boone’s Farm on one shelf and Chateau Mouton Rothschild Bordeaux on the next—people buy them. (And I think slogans like “Ted Kennedy is a dirty liberal Buick surfer� are hilarious.)
As an advocate of Austrian economics and a minimal state, it would be great to offer only products that I or other Austrians would wear and be able to pay for the site and make it worth my while. But that isn’t what Liberty Maniac’s original mission was. Liberty Maniacs has been about offering merchandize for a wide array of people from conservative to libertarian. That is the method to our madness.
That said, I am working on a total remake of Liberty Maniacs. The store is going in a more libertarian direction. Within the next couple weeks the roster of products as well as the overall look of the site will change. The most popular products will remain, but for those such as you that have a problem buying products from a store that sells “W� stickers, my guess is that you will like the changes.
I thank you for your comments. I welcome any thoughts you have about my store or any of the issues above.
Regards,
Daniel Patrick McCall
Libertymaniacs.com
Published: April 3, 2005 2:02 PM
You can sell whatever you would like. However, I don't agree with your analogy. Having a taste for cheap booze is not morally equivalent to having a lust for war.
Published: April 3, 2005 3:53 PM
The "Carpet Bomb Paris" mug has nothing to do with my or my customers' lust for war. The mug is, I think, a pretty obvious joke. Humor is subjective. Mine is often dark... thus the products.
The wine analogy had only to do with the fact that taste isn't the only concern an internet retailer has. The sites you posted above are all free sites offered by cafepress.com which require no overhead. My site does require overhead, so I it would be bad business to overlook products that sell.
Published: April 4, 2005 1:55 PM
Think whatever you like about your customers and their beliefs. There is little doubt in my mind that anyone with a carpet bomb Paris mug or bumpersticker has a lust for war. Maybe not a war against France, but a war none the less. As to your overhead, that was your choice.
Why don't you sell some Che t-shirts? Those sell well too.
The basic issue I have with Cafepress is that people who open "stores" using them as a provider are hardly providing a service worth compensating them for. As far as I can tell I can start my own "store" with no overhead and make my own shirt, at a lower price and cut out your profits. Why wouldn't want to do this?
Published: April 4, 2005 3:07 PM
A note, my commentary doesn't apply to things such as the LRC Store, as Lew's site provides a service that is certainly worthy of compensation.
Published: April 4, 2005 3:10 PM
1. One wouldn't just make their own merchandize for obvious reasons. Not everyone has the time, programs, and talent to make what they want.
I recommend anyone give it a go, it's great fun. The same argument could be made for hiring an electrician to wire your basement, however. It might seem to be cheaper on the surface to wire the basement yourself, but if you don't have the equipment, time, or know-how its just an illusion.
Published: April 5, 2005 12:47 PM